On a butterfly's wing
by Saelora
Summary: Taylor Hebert messed up bad when she took on Lung. Luckily for her, instead of dying, she ends up cast into another world, one that faces threats even greater than her own. Will she triumph over the forces arrays against her. will she be able to survive, or will she just be another casualty?
1. Intro: Flutter 1-1

**A small plot bunny I had stuck in my head and had to get down. I fully intend to return to HPatDW, I lost a lot of progress on it and have been reluctant to rewrite the chapter and a half I lost. That said, I look forwards to your feedback on my latest plot idea, a crossover between Worm and World of** **Warcraft. I have an outline for where I want this story to go, so hopefully it should see slightly more regular updates.**

 _This story begins during the events of gestation 1-5 in worm, and takes place during the event of the world of Warcraft game._

I swore under my breath and fumbled with the canister of pepper spray as my first attempt glanced off Lung's shoulder, only to drop it as he launched flames towards me.

With a burning backhand he sent me sprawling to the ground and I felt my hair catching fire.

One last ditch effort had me sending every bug I had to attack Lung in a single swarm, a swarm he immediately annihilated with flames.

This was it, I'd screwed up. My first night out and I was going to die. The flames swirling around Lung's hands formed into a fireball.

Even as I stared in horror, contemplating my death, I noticed a flapping out of the corner of my eyes.

Floating above and behind lung flapped a single moth, wings of the finest silver, and I was absolutely captivated, everything was forgotten about, even Lung and my impending death as I watched the moth's wings flutter, a fine silver cloud poured from it with each movement.

Instinctively I reached out to the moth with my power, only it wasn't there, I couldn't control it. I couldn't even sense it. Except I could sense it, I could feel it's very presence with every fibre of my being, except, strangely, through my power.

I watched the moth until flames overtook my vision, turning my world into heat and flames, fading rapidly to darkness.

* * *

I felt warm, not the warmth of Lung's flames. I felt something deeper, a warmth through to my very soul, if such a thing where possible.

Groaning I tried to sit up, but felt myself stopped by a gentle hand. I opened my eyes to see a stone ceiling. Stone? Not concrete, stone bricks. That confused me, I couldn't think of a single building in my home city of Brockton bay that had stone walls. Let alone a ceiling.

The next thing I noticed, was the man stood over me, a hulking figure in some kind of armour, chainmail I think it is called.

"Where am I? How did I get here?"

The man smiled softly. "We are in Northshire Abbey, you were brought here for healing after you were found nearby."

I frowned at the complete unhelpfulness of the answer, I had no idea where Northshire was, let alone that it had an abbey. The man must have seen my look of confusion.

"Northshire is in the kingdom of Stormwind, a few hours ride from Stormwind City."

Still confused, I just nodded, deciding I would work out the details properly later, I instead moved onto my next question. "Who are you?"

"My name is Brother Sammuel, I teach young paladins to call upon the light."

I had no idea what he was talking about, but at least I had a name.

I once again tried to sit up, and this time I was not stopped.

I looked around the room I found myself in. The only word that fit in my mind was 'chapel', A few benches, one of which I was on, a stained glass window on one wall to let light shine across a stone altar at one end of the small room and finally a door in the nearest corner allowed access to the room.

When I looked down at myself I noticed that I was still wearing my spider silk costume, the next thing I realised was that I was no longer wearing my mask. I began looking around with a panicked expression, and soon noticed it placed beside the bench I was sat on, at the far end. I grabbed it and pulled it on, feeling somewhat violated by its removal.

"Can I go outside?"

Sammuel nods, although cautions me. "Stay Nearby, we have a kobold problem, it's not safe to head too far into the trees."

Nodding absently I head outside, barely hearing his words as I was already reaching out to sense the bugs nearby.


	2. Flutter 1-2

I missed my dad. Well I missed more than my dad, but I especially missed him. Not only that, but I had no idea where I was. I seemed to be stuck in the middle ages, only they had capes.

Except they weren't.

Their skills were trained from a young age, more like knights from the crusades I read about in history class than anything where also other sets of abilities, that I couldn't get quite as much information on, but they all seemed to use varying forms of magic that I had no hope of understanding.

Two days had passed since I first arrived here, and I have no idea how to proceed, I wanted to find a way home, but I had no clue how to begin. The priests and paladins of Northshire had been kind and helpful, but I couldn't stay here forever, especially not if I was to have any hopes of getting home.

While I contemplated my situation I slowly made my way to the outside of the abbey, where I could enjoy some mid-afternoon sunlight.

Once outside, I made my way to the carts that, for the previous two days at least, had been outside the abbey hawking their wares.

One of the carts offers surprisingly nice sticky buns, making it my destination. I reached around my back into the compartment at the rear of my costume where I kept my change.

Pulling out a handful of the local currency, counting the amount I had, one silver coin and twenty copper ones, the remainder of the three silver I had been paid for clearing a rather nasty infestation from the nearby vineyards.

The local money was simple enough to understand, one hundred copper made a silver piece, and one hundred silver made a gold. Copper and silver coins came in denominations of one, two, ten , twenty and fifty, while gold came in denominations of just one or two.

Separating out fifteen copper coins, I was once again surprised by how much the money here was worth compared to dollars, back home I would have had to pay at least a few bucks for the same.

"Good afternoon, Lass" The stall keeper greeted me warmly, despite not knowing my name, I still haven't picked out a cape name and I don't feel safe giving out my real one, no matter how far from home I am.

"Good afternoon," I grinned, "Do you have any more of those sticky buns?"

"Planning in spoiling your supper?"

I open my mouth to respond, but before I can speak, the bell of the abbey starts ringing loudly, followed by an uproar. The local guard deputy runs past me, before pausing, calling to me. "You, girl, can you fight?"

I nodded dumbly.

"Grab a sword and report to marshal McBride just inside the abbey, there are a whole swarm of kobolds coming out of the mines, we need help holding them off until we can get more guards up here."

I nodded once more, and the deputy pointed me towards a rack of old swords, not the best weapons, but usable. Not that I was really sure how beyond the most basic hack and slash, but I decided it would be better to have one and not use it than need one and not have it.

I strapped the scabbard of the sword to my waist and began to build up a swarm outside while rushing inside to speak to the marshal.

"Deputy Willem told me to come to you if I wanted to help?"

The well armoured man studied me intently, the blue trim on his steel armour drew my attention as I waited for him to respond. I was once more reminded that the place I was in was stuck in the middle ages.

"Good. We need all the help we can get. A large group of Kobolds is pouring out of one of the mines in the forest to the north, we need all hands to hold them back until a larger contingent of guards arrives from Stormwind. Think you're up to it?"

I gulped, if the guards present weren't enough to deal with all of them, then I concluded that there must be a lot. I take a moment to steel myself, but then nod.

"That's what I like to hear. Head into the wooded area to the north and drive back any kobolds you find."

I nodded once more, and struggled to find my voice, but by the time I had the marshal had already turned away, leaving me to simply leave.

It took me a few minutes to reach the forest, but when I did I could hear the sounds of fighting, seemingly coming from all around. Directing my swarm throughout the trees I found small groups of fighting all around me, and a small group of four approaching from farther north.

Unsure if they were friend or foe I drew my sword, more for the comforting weight in my hand than any hope of using it effectively.

I identified the group as kobolds as they entered my sight, the description I had been given of kobolds simply didn't do them justice. Giant rats, hairless and between three and four feet tall, each armed with a rather nasty looking pickaxe, and a candle atop their heads. Their large dark eyes fixed onto me and they began to charge at me. A charge that faltered a moment later as I drew my flying insects into a large ball of swirling creatures.

The kobolds stood, torn between fighting and fleeing as I started forwards, leaning towards them I barked, "Run!"

The sudden sound caused the kobolds to stop their indecision and break and flee, disappearing into the trees.

I continued tracking the small group as they fled through my various bugs.

I didn't get it, why would the kobolds be attacking if they were that timid and fearful? It just didn't make sense.

Time for musing later I decided as my bugs picked up another, much larger, group of kobolds moving through the trees. I counted fifteen kobolds in the group, much larger than the last, but if they were as timid as the smaller group that shouldn't be a problem.

As I emerged from the trees to the clearing where the kobolds were gathered, they did not flee like the last group, instead, one of the kobolds angrily shouted in broken English, "You no take candle!" And the whole group charged.

I'll admit, I panicked, immediately sending my entire swarm at them, ordering everything to bite or sting.

My bugs fell upon the kobolds, but they kept coming, swatting at the bugs on them, killing a few, but it was too little, and they began to falter under the onslaught. Unfortunately for me, they reached me too quickly for the entire group to stop to fight off the insects.

The first kobold to reach me immediately swung his pickaxe. It was only thanks to a fly that had landed on the head of the weapon that I noticed in time to back-pedal, not wanting to trust my costume's armour plates against a weapon designed to tunnel through solid rock.

The pickaxe dug deep into the ground as I landed on my behind with a thump.

Struggling to catch my breath, I focused my swarm on those closest, and had them bite as much as possible.

Unnoticed by me, those that I took my bugs away from, turned to run away as soon as the bugs were off them, leaving just the eight closest remaining.

After a moment under the increased onslaught, two more of the kobolds turned to run, and I let them go, leaving just six remaining.

One of the six made a half hearted swipe at me, missing before collapsing, the other five collapsed a moment later.

Clearing my swarm from the collapsed kobolds, I moved closer to make sure they were down. That's when I noticed, those that had collapsed weren't unconscious, they were dead.

I barely managed to get my mask off from over my mouth before I threw up.


	3. Flutter 1-3

**A little shorter than I intended. But I wanted to get something up today. I had hoped to get a little further with this chapter, but life this weekend conspired against me so I couldn't get any writing done.**

It seemed like hours before I stopped retching, tears dried on cheeks as I calmed my breathing. I couldn't stay here, more kobolds could appear at any moment.

I slowly pushed myself to my feet from my hands and knees, pulling my mask back over my face before looking around the clearing. My eyes stopped a moment to rest on the bodies of the dead kobolds, and suddenly I felt sick again, not because they were dead this time, but because I didn't feel as bad as I should have.

I started as a fly landed on someone entering the clearing, spinning and bringing my sword up until I recognised Deputy Willem and I felt rather foolish. My fly had landed far too high for it to be a kobold. He paused as he came close, looking around the area and removing his helmet.

"First kills?"

I noded dumbly, looking down at the floor.

"Do you want to go back to the abbey? Reinforcements just arrived, so I can escort you back to the abbey if you need."

I was about to automatically respond with an affirmative, when I realised that I really didn't want to. I was involved in this situation now. I had killed those kobolds, and now I wanted to see it through to the end. I wanted to make sure that what I had done meant something and hadn't simply been an accident. My mind made up, I shook my head.

"I want to see this through to the end." My voice wavered a little, but I made it through the words without stopping or stuttering.

The man nodded and led me off towards where the guards were guarding the entrance to the mine the kobolds had first emerged from.

A group of guards led by Marshal Mcbride were grouped around a map as we arrived. The Marshal looked up at our arrival.

"Ah, Deputy, I was hoping you would arrive soon. And our enigmatic woman in black, glad you could make it." The Marchal beckoned us over.

As I moved closer, the map was revealed to show the interior of a mine, I could see a marker indicating the entrance as well as a number of notes in tiny script.

"The kobolds appear to be congregating around this spot, rather than their usual mining activities. We're not sure why, so we need a volunteer to go investigate." The man's gauntleted hand waved across above his head, swiping away a small moth fluttering around, distractedly muttering. "Where's a hero when you need one?"

The word hero caught my attention, they had heroes here? I needed to find a way home, but maybe I could be a hero here as well? I looked down at the map once again, I could probably sneak through to the spot and investigate, my costume was built for concealment after all.

"I'll do it." I managed to stop myself shouting. Barely. At least my voice didn't waver. The end result was that I sounded far more confident than I was.

Deputy Willem studied my masked face for a moment. "You sure you're up to it?"

No. "yes" I nodded.

"Take care then, lass, you'll need to either sneak past or drive off the kobolds on the way, don't get hurt." The Marshal rolled up the map of the mine and held it out to me.

I took the map before I turned and started towards the dark and ominous opening to the mine. As I got closer I could see a faint flickering light in the depths, much like that given off by a candle. Swallowing the lump in my throat placed one foot before the other and entered the mine.

As I moved deeper into the mine it grew darker and darker, forcing me to use my insects to work out where the wall, ceiling and even the floor was.

I noticed a flickering light approaching me. The candle blinding in it's intensity after the darkness, and I ducked into a side branch of the mine, hiding behind an outcropping of rock as the Kobold passed.

I held my breath as the creature shambled past, heading in the same direction I was heading. I couldn't see him, but my insects told me he was about three feet tall with thick leathery skin. His large nostrils sucked in a fly before snorting it out a moment later. The noise echoing around the mine noisily.

As soon as the glow began to fade I once again stepped out into the main tunnel, setting off behind the short creature, using a moth to track his progress.

The creature led me directly to my destination, a large cavern I sensed with my bugs well before I reached it. As I arrived in the cavern, the first thing I noticed was a single gold coin resting on the floor.

My eyes moved from the single coin to the much larger pile of gold behind it, and I knew, I just knew that I had to protect it. With my life if needs be. I moved a few insects from my swarm to land on and around the pile.

The moment one of my flies tried to land on the pile the world shattered. The pile of gold, my reason for existing, it wasn't there. But i'd only just discovered it? So did that mean it was never there? If it was never there, did that mean that I didn't need to protect it? I didn't understand, my head hurt.

My eyes settled on the first coin I saw, that was real, I could protect that. Satisfied with that I nodded to myself before realising that I didn't have to leave it where it was to protect it, I could just pick it up and take it somewhere safe. I didn't even need to stay in mine. I could take it away with me. I moved forwards and picked up the coin. The moment it was enclosed in my hand I blinked. What was I doing? Oh, yes, the coin, I opened my hand to look at it and remembered I was supposed to protect it. I closed my hand around it once more. I was confused, I wasn't quite sure what I was doing, I was protecting a coin? I was about to open my hand when I stopped myself. The coin was a trap, looking at it would make me need to protect it. I was just moving to place the coin in my costume's rear compartment where no one would be able to see it when a figure stepped out of the shadows.

"Well, well, well, it seems a little bug has skittered it's way into my mine"


	4. Flutter 1-4

**Second chapter today. This is where i had hoped to finish the previous chapter, but length and my eagerness to definitely get something out conspired against me. But anyhow. Enjoy.**

"Well well well, it seems a little bug has skittered it's way into my mine"

It took me a few moments to understand what was going on. I tried to stall for time as I sent my bugs to investigate the new arrival. "What do you want with Northshire?"

The man stepped into the light, his outfit was primarily red and brown. A cloth bandanna hung around his neck, resting against a brown jacket over a red tunic. A twisted length of wood rested against his back, held in place by a red sash over his shoulder. Reddish brown pants were tucked into black boots to complete the image. He snapped angrily. "Only that which I am owed."

The man steps forwards, his hand extends and I catch a glimpse of a tattoo, something circular, but I am unsure as to what. "Now, i'll have my coin back and you can skitter off home."

He was the one who owned the coin. My mind began to work, what was he trying to achieve? He sent the kobolds out to attack the abbey, is that what he wanted? But he must have expected the kobolds to be pushed back into the mine. My eyes narrowed behind my mask. He had said it himself, he wanted the mine. He had sent the kobolds to their deaths over a mine? He had enslaved all these creatures over some ores? I decided at that moment I was going to fight. No, I was going to win. I drew my sword as I began to form a swarm out of sight in the darkness of the mine.

The man in red laughed. "The arcane gives me power. With its aid I can twist the world to my whims, and you expect to fight me with a sword." He finished bragging, and began speaking in a language I didn't understand, confusing me, up until a giant spike of ice leapt from his hand and flew towards my head.

It was only thanks to a small group of flies between us being killed that I managed to throw myself to the ground. The spike missed my head by a hair's breadth. Literally, it rustled my hair as it passed.

Pushing myself to my feet, I watched warily for a followup attack. While I thought my costume might stop bullets, I wasn't so sure about those spikes. I tried to consider my next step, taking stock of the bugs I had, mostly ants and flies, a few wasps from outside and a couple of beetles, and six venomous spiders, but they were still a short time away.

My calculations were cut short by my opponent beginning to speak again in the strange language. I tried to swarm him with my insects in order to block his vision as I dodged to the left. A choking sound and the loss of one of my flies indicated he had inhaled an insect, and the expected attack never materialized.

My foe stepped forwards, clearing the swarm, and before I could get it back in place a single word, spoken almost as a curse, combined with a thrust of his hand, sent a blast of flames towards me.

I tried to dodge, but was too slow, and the fire blast struck me solidly in the chest. Heat washed over me as I recalled lung's flames, but the heat was gone as soon as it came. Knocking me from my feet, and likely burning me a little, but doing no serious damage.

"Not so tough now are you, little skittering bug. It's time I crushed you under my heel." The man grinned evilly, and began speaking in whatever language he seemed to use to activate his abilities, another spear of ice growing in his hand.

I went to push myself to my feet and get away, but my arm gave way beneath me, it seemed I had broken it in my fall. I was going to die. I wouldn't even get to say goodbye to my dad. No, I decided, I was going to live. I was going to live and then I was going to get home and tell my dad everything.

I called upon my entire swarm to attack. Flies flew at his mouth and nose, trying to block his speech, it seemed to work last time as my spiders, finally arrived almost too late, crawled into his boots and started biting. My wasps flew for his hands, stinging as much as they could. His speaking stopped, but the spike was half formed, allowing him to throw it at my chest.

The spike flew towards me, and embedded in my chest armour, I couldn't tell how deep it was, but it hurt.

The man before me collapsed, but I didn't have long to savour my victory as my own vision faded to black.

I looked at the moth, its wings flapped slowly. I couldn't sense it with my power. But every fibre of my being told me it was there. It slowly flew up and away, my eyes followed it. The clouds parted and a full moon shone down upon me, silhouetting the moth's form against me, perfectly covering me in it's shadow.

Green flames began to burn around me, or had they always been burning? I wasn't sure.

The heat from the flames grew more and more intense, and the moth flew back towards me, the scales on it's wings glimmering in the moonlight as it grew, moving closer and closer, until it was bigger than me. It's wings wrapping around me in protection.

The moth spoke except it made no sound. "Triumphant return. The lone arrow breaks. There is strength in the earth. Trust it."

The moth opened it's wings and a figure I couldn't make out stood atop a wall of stone, a bulwark against the flames.

The figure turned and I snapped awake.


	5. Flutter 1-5

I opened my eyes to a snouted face above me. A kobold? I tried to move away, but my arm was still broken, and immediately gave way under me. Again.

"No scare! No scare! Skitter bug save Kobold. Kobold owe skitter bug lives."

I was confused, skitter bug? Wait, did they mean me?

"I uh... you're welcome?"

I looked down at my costume, the spike of ice was beginning to melt, but not much. I can't have been out for more than a minute. I tried to grip it and pull it out, but my hands slipped off due to it being embedded in the chitin of my costume.

"Skitter bug help Kobold. Now Kobold help skitter bug." Two of the kobolds, with surprising strength for their size, helped me up.

I looked around at the creatures, and they back at me with wide innocent eyes.

"i need the uh.. Body." I winced as I indicated the man I had killed. I'm not sure how I felt about that, but either way I needed to bring him back outside.

The kobolds shied away from the man's body, until one particularly brave kobold approached him cautiously, poking him with a pickaxe, seemingly satisfied at his death, he struggled to lift the body. With that action, it was as if the floodgates opened and a large number of kobolds hurried over to pick up the body. One of the kobolds nearest me began to speak, and I realised it was the same one that spoke before.

"Bad wizard man make kobold come here. Bad wizard man kill many kobold. Skitter bug kill bad wizard man. Kobold help skitter bug."

It took me a few moments to decypher the kobold's meaning. And while I was still working it out he started speaking again.

"Come, kobold show skitter bug to surface."

The kobold beckoned me, as the group carrying the body started moving back the way I thought I came. With a lack of better options I followed them.

The exit to the mine soon came into sight, and surprising me, the kobolds stopped.

"This far as kobold go. Outside bad. Kobold thank skitter bug."

I nodded, before struggling to lift the body from where the kobolds set it down. I could not. Instead, with a wince, I started dragging it.

As I started to leave the mine I stopped and thought of something. "You know you can't stay here, right?"

The kobold who had spoken to me nodded. "Mine bad. All gold gone. Kobold find better mine soon."

I nodded, and resumed my slow progress outside. The ice spike was making it hard to breathe, I once again tried to pull it out, but my fingers slipped off.

I finally made it to daylight, and all but collapsed as a couple of guards ran to catch me.

I don't remember much of the next few minutes, it was all a flurry of activity.

I was soon taken back to the abbey, where I found myself being treated by a blonde woman, Anetta I think her name was.

As she treated my arm and removed the spike of ice, it hadn't gone that deep, I felt a warmth spread throughout my entire being. The ice spike slid free easily, allowing me to see that only the tip had blood on it.

"What's that?" I noticed her hand glowing a faint yellow colour.

The woman smiled kindly. "It's the light. Those who believe can use it to heal and protect."

As the woman spoke, aches and pains I didn't even realise I had faded along with the pain from my injuries.

The effect made me think about Panacea, a hero from my home city of brockton bay who could heal any injury. I'd heard she could even treat cancer, but I wasn't so sure how true that was. I idly wondered if her power would feel the same as this, with a strange warmth that I could feel throughout my entire being, even my soul, if such a thing was possible.

"It's an amazing gift that which the light gives us." The woman smiled warmly as her glowing hand was taken away, leaving the incredible warmth to fade once more.

I nodded. I was too caught up in the feeling of warmth to say much more, but the priestess who treated me didn't seem to need me to. "I'm going to go and check on the rest of the soldiers. Call if you need anything, but otherwise you should be fine to go."

I was left to my own thoughts for a few minutes as I tried to work out what to do next.

It took me until late in the evening to decide what to do. After speaking with the marshal and showing him the coin, I had been careful not to look at the object myself, he had suggested I take it to the nearby city in order to hand it over to the mages there in order to safely remove the magic, to which I was agreeable.

He also surprised me with a small bag of coins, explaining that in order for heroes to travel and help people, those that offered their aid were paid a small bounty, usually scaling with the difficulty of the task and the renown of the hero in question.

I briefly entertained using my new money to save myself the walk to the city, however, I had no idea how long it would have to last. As such I found myself setting off in the early hours of the morning, following the road south towards a large village, named goldshire, on the way to the city.

Setting out for a long walk,i found my mind wandering towards the future, considering how I was going to proceed after I reached the city, Stormwind, and where I was going to go. I considered what I knew of this world, which was admittedly little: two continents i'd heard of, eastern kingdoms and kalimdor; a number of different races, including orcs and dwarves; and most interestingly, magic, and not magic in the sense of "Science-we-don't-understand", honest to goodness magic, with fireballs and teleportation.

I was completely engrossed in my thoughts as I approached the large gate out of northshire valley, and as such I was caught completely off guard when a kobold appeared from the trees.

"Wait!" I started as the kobold's high pitched voice drew me from my musings, spinning to my right to face the source, my hand reached for the sword I had returned to the guards the previous night.

I instead began to draw upon a swarm, already sending a few flies to investigate the new arrival as it cowered. "No hurt! Friend!"

I paused, not quite trusting the creature yet, but willing to give him, I assumed it was a he, the benefit of the doubt. "What do you want?"

"Skitter-bug save kobold. Gnaw want help Skitter-bug. Travel. Gnaw be hero."

I was about to refuse the kobold, I had no idea who he was, but when he said the 'hero' word I knew I couldn't refuse. Who was I to deny someone the thing I myself wanted so dearly? In the end I sighed. "Fine, you can come with me." I dispersed my swarm.

The kobold nodded happily, and trotted closer now my insects were no longer swirling around me.

I sighed and beckoned the small creature to follow me as I headed through the gate out of northshire valley and into ellwyn at large.


End file.
